


Hold Me Close, Because I'm Drowning

by StelaRose



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, One Shot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Talking, They feel like fifteen again, post 5x08, what I want to happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 22:08:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30028581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StelaRose/pseuds/StelaRose
Summary: She opens the door quickly before regretting doing so and there he is. He doesn't have his usual easy smile; instead, his expression is serious and thoughtful. "Hi" Betty says, biting her lip nervously."Hi" He repeats.They both stare at each other, Archie doesn't try to get in and she doesn't try to let him pass. The space between them feels huge, but if she moves her arm a little, she can touch him.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper
Comments: 4
Kudos: 66





	Hold Me Close, Because I'm Drowning

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone.
> 
> A little one-shot of barchie. I hope you enjoy it.  
> For my readers of There is no Justice Without Truth, do not despair, chapter fourteen will arrive this week :)

It was easy for her to sneak out of the party. She told Kevin that if someone asked about her, he had to say that she had gone to the bathroom or something. The truth is that she only needed enough time to get home, once there, it did not matter if they realized that she was gone.

Now, lying in her bed staring into the dark, she tries to understand what her life has been like in recent months. When she got the call from Archie, it was unexpected but not unwelcome, going back to Riverdale, at least for a couple of days, gave her back some of that emotional stability she longed for at Quantico. But it lasted as little as an ice cream in the summer sun, the nightmares, the feeling of insecurity in each place; everything came back and with more force. The situation with Polly was just what was missing from her disastrous life.

How is she supposed to move on with her life when her heart has nothing but guilt and hopelessness? Since what happened with the Trash Bag Killer, her life has changed one hundred percent, and she feels the weight of having let it escape. The call with Glen left her even more devastated. If it weren't for her, there wouldn't be two new victims. If only she had done the right thing, none of this would be happening.

She thought Riverdale would help her escape, but it has only made her realize how lonely and broken she is.

She thought that at least now she had Archie back in her life, seven years without him was like having a constant void and that no matter what she did, she could never fill it. But after everything that happened at Cheryl's party, she doesn't think he's really in her life again. It was only a matter of time before he realized where his heart had always been.

Veronica came back into his life, giving him what he needed, the money for the Bulldogs, the fire truck, she was getting into his heart little by little. And Betty is now where she was years ago. Never good enough for him. She sits on the bed and sighs. She's an adult now, but Archie makes her feel like she's fifteen again. Or maybe it's just her mind that wants to hold on to a familiar feeling, to something that pulls her out of the anguish her life has been transformed into.

She almost jumps out of bed scared when she feels a sound at the window. Betty crawls stealthily to the window and slowly draws the curtain to look outside. It's somehow a surprise when she sees Archie throwing little rocks at her window. She doesn't know if it's good that he's here now. Archie has that quality of making her feel safe when she is with him and she believes that the time has come for her to learn not to depend on anyone to feel safe or else it will only devastate her even more when he finally goes where he has always belonged.

"Betty!" He whispers as loud as possible thinking about not waking her mother and the twins.

Her mother and the twins went to the house of relatives. Alice said she would do it to distract them from everything they are experiencing, even though they are still too young to realize what is happening.

Betty thinks her mother does it for herself too, so she can recharge for everything that lies ahead.

She gives herself all the courage she can, takes a deep breath and opens the window. "Archie, what are you doing here?"

He looks at her strangely and responds "We were supposed to leave the party together, remember?...Kevin told me that you had gone to the bathroom, I waited and waited, but you never came back". His voice sounds somewhat disappointed and breathless as if he had run to her house.

Before the party, when he arrived with the firefighter suit that he would use for the photo-shoot, they had agreed that they would stay only for a while at Cheryl's house and then one of them would make some kind of _signal_ and they would go back to his house, where he would give her a special parade just for her, one that included dancing and a series of other activities that just thinking about them make her blush. But that was before Veronica took his key out of the glass bowl and they had to kiss in front of everyone.

That kiss really hurt her, but what hurt her even more was the sparkle in Veronica's eyes.

"What are you doing!" She says when she sees him starting to climb the tree next to her window.

"I want to talk to you".

"Come down from there you can fall. I'll open the front door for you, my mother and the twins are not here, so we can talk". It is better that they speak in the living room and not her bedroom, it is more neutral.

Her heart beats strong as she goes down the stairs, she didn't think it would all end so soon. Having sex with Archie brought her closer to him in a way that she's not sure she's ever felt before. But it's more than just sex and she knows it, it's the after, it's the comfort of his arms, it's listening to his breath while taking a nap, it's how comfortable they feel with each other. in those moments she doesn't need to be anyone else, just Betty Cooper.

She opens the door quickly before regretting doing so and there he is. He doesn't have his usual easy smile; instead, his expression is serious and thoughtful. "Hi" Betty says, biting her lip nervously.

"Hi" He repeats.

They both stare at each other, Archie doesn't try to get in and she doesn't try to let him pass. The space between them feels huge, but if she moves her arm a little, she can touch him.

"Will you let me in?" He asks and Betty thinks about how different it sounds. As if asking if she will let him into her heart and not into her home.

"Do you want to come in?" In his eyes she can see the answer clearly.

"If you let me". He sounds confident but cautious.

"There are so many things you don't know Arch". She whispers looking down. "If I let you in, I don't think I can let you go. I'm going to hold onto you like my life depends on it".

"Then do it. Hold on to me. But don't leave me like you did today". She can't see his face because she still has a blank stare at her shoes. But his voice is desperate now and she wonders if maybe he wants to hold onto her too.

"What about Veronica?" The cold night air makes her bare legs shake.

"Look at me". He says. Betty knows that the moment she looks at him again she will be lost, but she does it anyway. She has to stop being a coward and face reality. "I'm trying to save Riverdale to keeping me sane. Before I came here I..." He says doubtfully, his eyes wandering as he tries to compose the words. "I'm a mess Betty. And in all that mess you're the only one who makes me smile, for real, not the fake smile that I put on my face every day". She watches Archie's fists clench, debating with himself, about what? She’s not sure, maybe his words or maybe the fact that he wants to touch her but doesn't want to scare her. "Kissing Veronica at the party is just Cheryl's silly game to create drama and I swear I don't feel anything for her".

"Like the kiss in the closet years ago?" Betty can't help but remember. It may have been years ago, but it's a ghost in her mind that still makes her feel insecure.

"Things were different at the time, I was different". He says with a note of desperation in his voice. “I will always have a special connection with Veronica because I loved her very much in the past but nothing more and _that_ is what I told her at the party when she asked if we could go to my house. Together". The last words he says somewhat embarrassed, scratching the back of his neck.

She tries to find the truth in his eyes, if he really said that to Veronica or maybe he says this to her now just to reassure her.

"I have nothing to give you". Betty says this thinking about how much Veronica has helped him and how little she has to offer in that regard.

"Are you kidding me? You've already given me so much and you haven't even noticed"

There is so much to talk about with him, so much she needs to tell him in order to cleanse her conscience and her soul of so much pain, but right now all she wants is for him to wrap her in his arms and never let her go. "Betty let me in. Please".

Betty walks the short distance between them, stands on tiptoe and whispers to his lips "I don't want to hide anymore. I want to kiss you whenever I want".

"I just follow _you_ Betty, like always". The air from his mouth warms her lips and that heat spreads throughout her body. Only their lips touch and the anticipation of his hands on her is killing her.

Every blink of his eyes, every breath, seems to be in tune with her. "I want it all". A smirk appears on his lips when she responds.

"Do you want it now?" he asks.

She hesitates a bit but says "Yeah".

"Okay". He takes her by the hand and makes her walk to the middle of the street.

She laughs nervously. "Archie, what are you doing?"

"You said you wanted it all, _now_. So I'll give it to you". She still doesn't understand what he means when Archie starts yelling. "I want everyone in the neighborhood to hear that Betty Cooper and Archie Andrews are together! We are a couple. Did you hear Mrs. Williams? Mr. Brown?"

"Archie stop!" Betty can't stop laughing when she sees the lights on from some of her neighbors. Probably to see what happens, why there is so much fuss.

She begins to tug at his clothes for him to enter the house with her. "Stop...You're crazy". Although her fifteen year old heart secretly loves what he just did.

Archie keeps yelling at his neighbors as she drags him into the house.

When she manages to get him inside and closes the door behind her, they both laugh like crazy. It feels good to laugh at last.

The laughter begins to die slowly and Betty sees how Archie practically eats her with his eyes. She wears a hoodie over the old FBI shirt she was sleeping with. He walks over to her and takes her face in his hands. "I missed you".

"You saw me just a few hours ago". She says putting her hands on his back.

"I missed you". The emotions on his face are many and she cannot decipher them all, but what she does understand _now_ is that he was referring to the seven years in which they did not communicate with each other. "I wanted to write to you....many times...but then I thought about how things had ended between us and I didn't know if you wanted to receive a letter from me". His eyes turn gloomy. "Besides, I wouldn't have managed to write everything to you even in a thousand letters. I'm broken Betty".

Betty took a deep breath, calming herself. "It seems that we are two broken souls". She puts her hands under his shirt caressing his warm skin. "Maybe we can patch our souls together".

"I want that. I want it all too". He runs his thumb over her lower lip and strokes it slowly.

His gaze is so deep that she feels like it will burn her soul if she doesn't kiss him right now. So that's what Betty Cooper does. She places her lips on his and draws him to her body with her hands, clinging to his back with them.

"I'm going to write that we are together on all the blackboards I can find". Betty doesn't know if his words make her laugh or if it's his kisses on her neck that tickle her.

"You are so cheesy".

She tries to take off his shirt, but she forgets that he is also wearing a jacket, so to end her frustration; he helps her by removing all his clothes. _Absolutely everything._ "Better?" He walks over to her and puts his hands on the wall next to her head, making her his prisoner. "What's wrong? I thought you wanted it all". Over the years she has grown bolder than she was, but Archie still makes her nervous. The years have been generous to him. She doesn't think anyone can resist him with a body like this.

"Arch". She is intoxicated with his scent and his body pressing her against the wall. She can feel every muscle in him even with the hoodie on.

"I'm waiting". He strokes his nose with hers.

"What are you waiting for?"

"For you. I'm always waiting for you".

There is still so much to resolve between them, so much that she wants to share with him, her fears and insecurities, but now, at this moment, she knows that they have all the time in the world to do it because none of them are alone in this world anymore.


End file.
